Death Wish
In the Q Continuum '' |image= |series= |production=40840-130 |producer(s)= |story= Shawn Piller |script= Michael Piller |director=James L. Conway |imdbref=tt0708875 |guests=Raphael Sbarge as Michael Jonas, Peter Dennis as Isaac Newton, Maury Ginsberg as Maury Ginsberg, John de Lancie as Q''', Jonathan Frakes as '''William Riker and Gerrit Graham as Q2/'Quinn' |previous_production=Prototype |next_production=Alliances |episode=VGR S02E18 |airdate=19 February 1996 |previous_release=(VGR) Dreadnought (Overall) Sons of Mogh |next_release=(VGR) Lifesigns (Overall) Bar Association |story_date(s)=49301.2 (2372/ca. 16 billion years ago) |previous_story=Dreadnought |next_story=Bar Association }} =Summary= Voyager comes across a comet, inside which there is a single living being. It turns out to be a member of the Q Continuum (later designated as Quinn). Quinn thanks the Voyager crew for freeing him from his imprisonment, then tries to commit suicide. But he ultimately fails, and instead of killing himself, he causes all the males on Voyager to vanish. Q appears and accuses Quinn of sending humans to the Delta Quadrant where they did not belong yet, then realizes all the men are missing and returns them. Quinn requests Federation asylum from Janeway when Q wants to re-impose the Q Continuum's sentence of imprisonment. Q laughs at the request for asylum but Janeway decides to hold a hearing on Quinn's request. Q reluctantly agrees to make Quinn human if he is granted asylum. He later attempts to bribe Janeway, claiming that if she rules against Quinn, he'll send Voyager home. During the hearing, Q summons three witnesses to testify that Quinn has been influential in the history of humans, beneficially. Sir Isaac Newton claimed that he was sitting beside Quinn when the apple struck his head (after Quinn stood up to leave, he jostled the tree, causing the apple to fall). Another witness, Maury Ginsberg, claims that if Quinn had not offered a ride in his jeep, he would have never made it to Woodstock, got the sound system working and met his future wife. Finally, William Riker of the USS Enterprise denies any claim to have known Quinn at all, until Q shows Riker that Quinn had helped his family in the past: As a soldier in the American Civil War, Quinn carried a wounded Union officer, Colonel Thaddeus Riker, back from the front lines to safety – ultimately ensuring Will Riker's existence in the future. Quinn shows the court the Q Continuum (or rather how it would be interpreted by their limited human minds) as a road stretching around the entire planet with one rest stop, a country gas station and store, and some Q standing around, bored. Quinn describes immortality as dull, that it is only possible to experience the universe so many times before it gets boring. Q tries to dismiss it and makes a poor attempt to show that the other members of the continuum are happy, but Quinn sees through it and confesses, to Q's surprise, that it was Q's earlier unrestrained behavior in an attempt to make his life fun that was the motivation for his own actions. He makes an impassioned speech comparing his eternal boredom to suffering from a terminal biological disease for which suicide is the only humane release, and that being forced to live for eternity against his will "cheapens and denigrates" his life, and indeed all life. Janeway is clearly moved by this and agrees to grant him asylum. Keeping his part of the bargain, Q makes him human. At this point, Quinn chooses his name. While trying to decide where to assign Quinn so that he will not use his knowledge to evolve humanity overnight, Janeway and Chakotay receive a message from the Doctor that Quinn is dying after ingesting a rare poison, Nogatch hemlock. After they realize that the Doctor did not keep any of the poison on hand, and that the computer would not replicate it due to its harmful nature, Q then appears and admits that he was the one who gave Quinn the poison. He's taking up Quinn's rebellion against the staid order of the Q. =Errors and Explanations= Internet Movie Database Continuity # Riker is wearing the old-style com-badge, which suggests that he has been "abducted" from a time before 2370, i.e. before Voyager was launched and got lost in the Delta Quadrant. Therefore he should have no knowledge of Janeway being captain of that vessel. Janeway took command in 2371. Semiram Q could have changed the combadge to see if anyone noticed.Mcb359 on Sunday, July 15, 2018 - 20:08: Or rather, Janeway’s command of Voyager was confirmed in 2370 (TNG’s 7th season) while the ship was still under construction. Therefore, Riker could easily have known she had Voyager even before the ship launched. Why he didn’t question how Voyager got finished so quickly is another issue!. Revealing mistakes # When Q calls himself to the stand, it's obvious that his "counterpart" was filmed in different lighting, as seen on the hair color. This could be a side effect of the duplication. Nit Central # Ed Jolley on Tuesday, January 16, 2001 - 1:48 pm: Wasn't it convenient that the transporters just happened to focus on the Q when Torres beamed a 'core sample' of the comet on board? That could have been done by Q2/Quinn, when he realised he had a chance to escape. # The suicidal Q had been imprisoned for 300 years, but he was inspired to seek death by the misbehaviour of the deLancie Q. Misbehaviour that happened within the past 10 years. Slight timescale problem there, I think. Q on Tuesday, January 16, 2001 - 2:21 pm: Oh stop thinking so three dimensionally! Jessica on Saturday, May 12, 2001 - 1:50 pm: Jolley, we only _know_ of Q misbehavior that happened in the last ten years; that doesn't mean he wasn't misbehaving for 3 or 4 hundred years before that; a species of immortal beings probable doesn't act very quickly in most cases--Q might have misbehaved for, oh, 2 hundred years or so before receiving his first warning & then not been actually punished for another hundred or so years. # Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Tuesday, July 10, 2001 - 3:18 am: It's stated that no planetary or stellar forces are affecting this comet, but it's losing material like a real comet approaching a star. That could be part of efforts to make it look like a real comet. # Was it really such a good idea to imprison this Q in a fake comet? Why not something that starships would steer clear of like a black hole? Jwb52z on Thursday, July 12, 2001 - 3:27 pm: If not for the fact that it was losing material like a real comet when it should not have been, they probably would have steered clear of it. A comet isn't all that interesting in the bigger scheme of things. Category:Episodes Category:Voyager